After Only 3 Fights, Claressa Shields Gets Her Title Shot

At just 22, Claressa Shields is a baby in boxing years. She's been a professional for six months, and while she's undefeated, the Flint, MI native has only three fights to her name.

So it should be ludicrous that Shields announced her first real title bout on Wednesday—a 10-round clash with Germany's Nikki Adler on Aug. 4 at the MGM Grand in Detroit for both Adler's WBC super middleweight crown and the vacant IBF title. (The fight can be seen on Showtime at 10 p.m. ET)

Of course, anyone familiar with the two-time Olympic gold medalist totally expected this. Shields is as impatient in the ring, where she continuously forces the action, as she is with her career goals.

"I wanted a belt and I wanted a belt fast," Shields said during a phone interview on Wednesday. "It's my fourth fight and I'm fighting 10-rounders against a girl that's 16-0 with nine knockouts."

Originally Shields was gunning for unified middleweight champion Christina Hammer, but the 26-year-old German star didn't reciprocate. As Shields explains it, Hammer's representatives wanted to wait until 2018 to put the two in a ring together, and Shields doesn't have the patience for that.

"I'm like, 'You think I'm supposed to go without a belt until next year?'" she asked.

So instead of fighting the lanky Hammer at 160 pounds, she'll face the bruising Adler, who could weigh as much as 180 on fight night.

"You get in there with bigger fighters," Shields explained. "You can't get hit as much. These girls are coming down [in weight]; I'm going up. So when they're rehydrating, they're rehydrating back up to 180. I'll hydrate up and still be at 168."

Moving up in weight is nothing new for Shields, who won her first gold as a 17-year old who was shorter and smaller than nearly every opponent she faced at the London Olympics.

But as impressive as it is to dominate bigger opponents, as he she did in her June 16th unanimous-decision victory over Sydney LeBlanc, what makes Shields remarkable is her decisiveness.

With her athleticism and punching power, Shields transcends weight class. So when Hammer's camp refuses to give her a title shot, Shields can confidently turn her attention to the super middleweight champion without any fear whatsoever.

"Claressa is old school in a way where she doesn't care about weight," said her promoter Dmitry Salita, a former boxer in his own right. "She just cares about skills. She feels that good boxing is going to beat small girls, big girls, whoever she's fighting."

A good comparison could be made with Ukrainian amateur legend Vasyl Lomachenko, who won a title in just his third pro fight, beating American Gary Russell Jr. by majority decision.

But he had much more experience, given the fact that he was 26, fought nearly 400 times as an amateur, had already fought and lost a controversial decision to veteran Orlando Salido, and was two years removed from winning his second Olympic gold medal.

Shields, on the other hand, won her second Olympic gold within the last year. She's already fought in two weight classes, and if she can beat Adler (16-0, 9 KOs), who'll be making her third title defense, she could ultimately pull a Henry Armstrong and simultaneously hold multiple titles in multiple weight classes.

And if that happens, Shields could do for women's boxing what Ronda Rousey did for women's MMA or what Tiger Woods did for golf.

Naturally, Shields sees this as less of an "if" and more of a "when."

"It's gonna happen," she said. "I don't know what's gonna happen after this fight. I want to win the belt at 168, 160, 154. If I have to collect all the belts at 168 one at a time, then that's what we'll do."

She'd even challenge the supposed pound-for-pound queen, Norway's Cecilia Braekhus, at 154 pounds, but added that Braekhus would need to come up from 147 because Shields admittedly can't make that weight.

"You got to grab somebody's attention," Shields said about holding titles in different weight classes. "And I think that goes with who I am. Nothing is impossible, but some stuff is very, very hard to do. And right now, women's boxing is getting more [attention] that it has ever, ever gotten. I don't want to take all the credit. But we'll take 80% of it. Since I signed the contract to go pro, women's boxing has turned a whole new leaf."

Salita can't help but agree.

Investing in a fighter is a risk for any promoter, and women's boxing traditionally struggles to compete financially.

The reality is that it's not enough for Shields to be the best. For her to truly galvanize the sport and capture audiences, she needs to do the unthinkable, and that means she has to outwork everyone, including male boxers. She can't take easy fights and Shields can't take any opponent lightly.

To her credit, Shields quickly turned Salita and manager Mark Taffet into believers—not only in herself, but in women's boxing, which she confidently considers to be superior than men's.

"Every time they leave after seeing me train, I just see a sense of relief," Shields said of Salita and Taffet.

"I've been to the gym to see Claressa train several times, and we were in disbelief by how hard she trains," Salita said. "She runs three miles as a warmup before she even starts anything. She boxes with men, and does drills, and it's very fast-paced and it's very intense. First time I came I thought it was just a show, but then I came back many more times and it's consistently the same. She has a great trainer [Jason Crutchfield]. She works harder than the men. No doubt about it."

And Shields' ambition isn't limited to boxing.

Beyond her extensive charity work, she's also trying her hand at training others. Recently MMA star Cris Cyborg asked for some boxing pointers and the two ended up sparring for four rounds in Los Angeles.

"She wants to come and train with me at my next camp," Shields said. "She's gonna come down to wherever I am for a month, and I'm gonna be her trainer. Not as much as getting in the ring and sparring, but if she wants to we can. But it's more teaching her some basic things about boxing."

Shields is warming up to the idea of doing some television commentating when she isn't training ("I know boxing, and I like to tell the truth—the brutal truth") and when she's done with the sport, she may even go into acting.

Already the subject of a popular documentary, "T-Rex: Her Fight For Gold," Shields has always been interested in the profession. More recently, while doing an ad for Dick's Sporting Goods, she was told that she's talented too. "'You're gonna be an actor,'" the director told her.

"I can do different characters," Shields laughed. "I can be the boxer, I can be the wife that's getting cheated on; I can be the convict's girlfriend. Whatever you need. I can be the angry black woman. You know, whatever."

Nothing could be more dramatic than her own childhood, much of which has been examined through the documentary and countless articles. With her father in prison, Shields grew up in extreme poverty. She's spoken publicly about being abused sexually, and by allowing herself to be vulnerable, she's cemented herself as a real role model—the type of person kids can look up to without even necessarily being boxing fans.

That's why Salita believes he's promoting someone that's more than just a boxer. Shields, who is young enough to be a college undergrad, is charming, magnetic, and above all, respectable.

"I think Claressa is on the way to becoming the face of women's sports," he said. "She's already successful in her sport and she has an amazing story outside the ring. She is truly an American hero. She's only 22-years old. She can be a positive role model for people in Flint and all around the United States."

Best of all, Shields knows she's a star, and like all of boxing's most popular champions, she's not too shy to say it.

"Right now, I'm the main draw in women's boxing," Shields said. "I have the fans, the media attention, I have the viewers. People want to see me fight."